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A/N: One again, --bold italics-- indicate text that has been crossed out.
31st May, 1992
Dear Mum and Dad,
I'm ever so nervous about my exams. They begin tomorrow, you know. I've been revising endlessly, but --I've been a bit distracted thinking about the Philosopher's stone, and Snape trying to kill Harry, and smuggling illegal dragons out of the castle, and whatnot-- I'm not certain if it will be enough. I don't have much time to write, of course, because I want to go look over my notes again.
Wish me luck!
All my love,
Hermione
9th June, 1992
Dear Mum and Dad,
I'm very pleased to say that all the older years have been drastically exaggerating the difficulty of Hogwarts examinations. I found them much easier than I expected. I'm quite pleased with the way things went. I can't be sure, of course, until we get our results, but I think I did rather well.
Harry, Ron, and I had --yet another near-death experience-- a bit of an interesting day on Thursday. Since our last exam was finished, we went to talk to Hagrid. He told us --that he'd unwittingly told a mysterious stranger how to get past Fluffy-- an interesting piece of trivia about the castle, so we decided we'd --better try to stop Snape from stealing the Philosopher's Stone in order to bring You-Know-Who back to life-- do a bit of exploring.
There are so many fascinating things hidden throughout Hogwarts. For example, we --were nearly strangled by a plant-- found a rare species of plant, and Harry --had to sort through hundreds of enchanted keys to find one that would open a door leading to who-knew-what new danger-- got a chance to do a bit of flying. Afterwards, Ron --was backhanded by an enormous stone queen-- bumped his head, and --fell to the ground, unconscious-- decided to rest for a bit. Harry and I solved a tricky logic puzzle, --in which a mistake would lead to certain death-- and I decided to go back with Ron. --to fetch Dumbledore while Harry went on alone to face the wizard who'd killed his parents--
Sadly, we found out a few days ago that Professor Quirrell --had been sharing a body with You-Know-Who all year long and tried to murder Harry-- had a terrible accident and --was in so much agony at Harry's touch that he eventually died-- had to leave Hogwarts. Luckily, --Harry pulled through, after lying unconscious in hospital for several days-- no one else was injured.
Yesterday was the leaving feast, and it was a terribly exciting evening for Gryffindor. Slytherin had been in the lead for ages, but Dumbledore awarded us enough last-minute points to put us in the lead. We were ever so pleased to have won, of course.
It will be so nice to see you again! All things considered, though, my first year at Hogwarts has been --terrifying-- --dangerous-- --completely absurd-- --a real adventure-- simply wonderful.
All my love,
Hermione
A/N: Any feedback is more than welcome!